A Relevant Post for All

I was recently reading through Easley's past entries in his blog (that he recently started) when I came across his post "Why Attack The NC?" I shall post the text minus the pictures here, as it is an accurate account of our internal politics concerning that decision.

Why Attack The NC? As a member of IT Alliance, The Maverick Navy has been very busy fighting the Northern Coalition. The Maverick Navy also participated in the MAX campaign, which was the last major BoB/IT-run offensive against the North. Unlike the MAX campaign, which began with a long string of convincing victories for the Band of Brothers alliance, this war has been a struggle with gains measured in inches from day one. While the differences between MAX and the current campaign will be the topic of many future posts, I would like to take a moment to first examine the reason we are in this war to begin with. Some players may be unsure why IT Alliance and its allies in the south would bother attacking the Northern Coalition (NC) in their homeland after only recently recapturing our own space from Pandemic Legion, Sons of Tangra, Goonswarm and Zenith Affinity. While some of our opponents charge that IT Attacked the north “because everyone else was set blue,” this charge is provably false by a simple examination of in-game standings. We have enemies elsewhere, and many of our current war-fighting comrades are only temporary partners (by mutual preference). Among our temporary allies is Atlas, the alliance that The Maverick Navy formerly belonged to. We threw away our comfortable position in the Southeast to aid IT Alliance in their bold campaign against the coalition that previously had driven them out of their space following the “Hargoth” disaster. Bobby was not pleased with our withdrawal, but after a controversial internal vote, our CEO decided to take the plurality decision as a mandate for change. It would also be a mistake to completely ignore the existence of long-time foes like Pandemic Legion and Goonswarm (now SOLODRAKBANSO) simply because they are currently not major sov-holders. In the case of PL, the lack of attackable space is probably more of an advantage than a weakness, as recent events have shown. We were not “out of enemies” by any means, nor had we been at peace for very long. What some fail to understand is that most southern alliances share a common vision for New Eden. We want our world to be a brutal, tribal war-zone. Consider what the “new Providence” created by -A- has become. Instead of a shelter for inept carebears, the region is now a proving ground for tough-but-small groups like Agony, Noir, Daisho, Star Fraction and others. Just as before, it is a utopia for small-scale pvp, but without the hand-cuffing of players by religious zealots. Isn’t it interesting that the formerly-NRDS alliances in Providence, save for those who stay to plan their re-conquest of the region from low-sec, have chosen to move to the north and join the NC? Some say it is purely for revenge against their attackers, but my sense is that it has equally if not more to do with the security and “defensive” posture of the north. IT Alliance, formerly the Band of Brothers alliance, has a long and complicated history that I will not tackle in this post. However, one common string in our past has been a strong preference for aggression. Northern alliances, with some exceptions (most notably Razor) are defensive groupings of players who (again – this is a generalization) tend to see the ideal organization of New Eden as a Starfleet Federation of sorts, ripe for peaceful exploration and development. If IT and Atlas are like Pinky and the Brain, plotting to “take over the world” each night, then the North is like Jerry from Tom & Jerry, a cheese (ore) hungry rodent that always manages to foil its attackers plans, sometimes by enlisting help from a mean bulldog (and in this current war that would be Pandemic Legion). I’m being a little unfair to many of the northern entities, I will concede that at the outset. However, I genuinely do see a difference in the goals and behavior of the NC and the current “Southern Coalition.”

Hats off to Easley for his thoughts.

That is all.